Sharing our food successes and failures, new recipes and old favorites...and throwing in some great money-saving deals here and there!

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About Me

I'm a stay-at-home mom to Lindsay (born 12/21/06), Luke (born 5/25/09) and Jakob (5/13/12). My husband (lovingly referred to as "the boy") and I have been married since 06/05/04. While not tethered to my computer, I'm either playing with the kiddos, running, working out, reading, or enjoying a glass of wine.

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Tuesday, September 6, 2011

They call this crack pie for a reason - I'm pretty sure this is to a food junkie like myself what crack is to a drug junkie ;-) It's highly addictive and one piece is definitely not enough!

I found this recipe featured in Bon Appétit in last year's September issue. I was intrigued (mostly because of the name!) and stuck it in my collection. I have avoided making pies, cookies, cakes, etc. recently because I'm usually the only one in the house who ends up eating it, but when I was in charge of dessert for the boy's family's Labor Day picnic, I thought I'd give it a shot. The name rang true - everyone seemed to like the salty-sweet pie and I had just one little sliver left by the end of the day. I'd definitely make this one again!

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350. Whisk both sugars, milk powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add melted butter and whisk until blended. Add cream, then egg yolks, and vanilla and whisk until well blended.

These sound bizarre - believe me, I know. I needed to bring dessert to the boy's family's annual Labor Day gathering and I've been itching to make this one recipe I found in Bon Appétit (crack pie - look for that post after this one). I had no idea how the pie would turn out, so I thought I'd bring brownies as a safe bet back-up (and it was kid-friendly for the 6 little ones we had there). When I opened up my fridge and saw mounds of zucchini and (of course!) no eggs, I remembered seeing this recipe and figured I'd try it out. What are the odds of a double dessert failure?!

Luckily, the brownies were a HUGE hit. Even my father-in-law, who hates zucchini and isn't a big fan of chocolate, thought they were great. I definitely recommend them if your garden is overflowing with zuchs! The icing is what really makes them perfect (alone the brownie was just a tiny bit bland).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch baking pan. I like to use cocoa powder to flour the pan so the brownies don't have white powder all over the bottom.

In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched.

To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners' sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Yesterday was the first day of college football - whoo hoo! I love watching the games...but not nearly as much as the boy. I can sit still for at least one game...*sometimes* two, depending on who is playing. He could sit there for an entire day and watch?! With yesterday being the first week, that's what he did. When the kids were napping, I was already getting antsy, so I decided to make lasagna. This recipe takes awhile and has lots of steps, but is worth it. The cold leftovers for breakfast are pretty darn delicious, too!

To assemble, layer 6 noodles along bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce on top. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with one half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarella cheese. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella.

Cover with foil and bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 40 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

I found this steak marinade recipe about a year and a half ago and immediately fell in love! P-M (pre-marinade), I would just slap on a little olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic onto my steaks and have the boy grill them up. They were always good, nothing extraordinary, but still tasty. Since I've found this recipe, though, I won't make them any other way. I also use some of the marinade on the veggies that we serve with it - adds a little punch to them, but not in an overwhelming way.

This last time we had steaks, I made them with beans that were fresh picked from our garden, and with some garlic red potatoes we had picked up through our crop share.